- Published: 15 January 2015
- ISBN: 9781473511347
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 288
The Possibilities
- Published: 15 January 2015
- ISBN: 9781473511347
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 288
Like the wonderful American novelist Anne Tyler, Hemmings writes witty, immersive, immensely readable and deeply humane fiction about entirely believable characters.
Patricia Nicol, Metro
Touching and terrifically well written.
Good Housekeeping
This is a novel that creeps up on you, its frequent bursts of humour masking a gentle yet astute examination of the various ways in which people deal with bereavement and the bereaved.
Natasha Tripney, Observer
Absorbing novel about grief and coping.
RTE Guide
I was reminded of the film Little Miss Sunshine; the book has the same unsentimental approach to life’s big events.
Lucy Scholes, Independent
This is a satisfying and elegant insight into families, and what grief does to us - and likely another bestseller for Hart Hemmings.
Edel Coffey, Irish Independent
It is a quiet novel that packs a punch.
Sarah Gilmartin, Sunday Business Post
Gorgeous and sad and exhilarating
Chicago Tribune
A remarkable tale of loss and love and a twist that will completely sideline you
Marie Claire
Hemmings manages to combine an examination of the effects of Cully’s death on his mother, family and friends with a wit and lightness of touch that makes this finally an uplifting read… The best novel I’ve read this year.
Sue Glynn, Nudge
A very enjoyable, often funny read.
Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner
A graceful, subtle primer on freedom - the means by which we free (and forgive) ourselves, our parents, and our children, as well as the almost unbearable getting-of-wisdom by which we free our beloved dead. The Possibilities is familiar to us, in all its wit and intelligence, because we know the characters. We are the characters.
Susanna Moore, author of The Life of Objects
A piercing, empathetic story about parenthood and unfathomable heartbreak and manages to bring humor and hope to her characters… an astute and sensitive examination of relationships, loss and grief.
Kirkus Reviews
Hemmings deftly deploys her idyllic setting, leavens tragedy with humor, avoids sentimentality, and offers characters whom readers will find very appealing.
Booklist ***
In smooth, nuanced prose, Kaui Hart Hemmings deftly captures the emotional hurdles that pin our day-to-day lives to the map of the universe. The Possibilities is a heartrending story of grief, resilience, and ultimately joy in all the tumult that loving other people inevitably demands. A soulful gem of a novel that reminds us to treasure every fleeting, crystalline moment of family love and our imperfect lives.
Carol Cassella, author of Gemini
With a deft and dry humor, Hemmings tackles the unique and unexpectedly humorous ways in which one is expected to mourn… But, on closer inspection, the novel is a treatise on parenthood: Sarah struggles less with Cully’s death, and more with the fear that she never really knew him at all.
PW (starred) and Pick of the Week